The Good Wife
by 1two3to1
Summary: She wonders if she's good enough. CN/OFC, OB


The Good Wife  
Casey Novak, Olivia Benson, Other Character

Author's Note: I took Sir Dick-A-Lot's plot canon and shot it out the window. The characters are all safe and well in the little world I recreated for them. Reviews equal faster chapter updates, but I won't make you beg for them, but in the case of my wife and child, get on your knees and tell me you love me ;) Now, strap in kiddies. We're in for the long haul!

Prologue

_Please, God no! Not another negative_. Not after all the pain, the heartache. They'd tried so hard, for so long that this had to be it, for the last time. She couldn't take another no, again.

Rick was gone to London for a conference. This was supposed to be the perfect homecoming gift. She was beginning a new position next week. This was supposed to be the perfect start to a new, better beginning. _Please_, she silently prayed to whom ever might be listening, _don't let this be the end to that before it even began._

The doctor walked in to the stale and heartless examination room, eyes solemn and grey glued to the ground. Before he opened his mouth to speak she knew. She knew that there was no such thing as perfection, that there wasn't anybody listening.

"I'm sorry, Casey…"

Chapter 1: The Great Unwelcoming

So, this was her. This was the big little hot shot Branch uprooted from White Collar Crimes and unceremoniously dumped in to the Special Victims Unit. _Her_ unit. A seasoned detective of unforgettable years, Olivia Benson eased back in her worn in desk chair and studied the woman standing in Cragen's office. Tall and incredibly slim, she looked about ten pounds soaking wet and entirely too young to be out of college, let alone the sole prosecutor of a high profile unit. Just what, exactly, was she doing here?

It felt like a thousand burning knives searing her in her back, all those eyes out there staring down at her, observing her, calculating her every breath. From the second she walked into the precinct those beady daggers followed her, cold and daunting. Under normal circumstances her hard-ass attitude would have reflected them away, but this was starting to get to her. She was the new kid in school all over again.

Casey hadn't wanted to be here. She was perfectly happy in the WC taking down corporate ingrates and the embezzlers who loved them. In typical political fashion, Branch listened only to Branch and drug her ass here anyway and damned anyone who tried to direct otherwise. Things were just not going her way.

"Well, Novak, welcome abroad!" Captain Cragen, SVU's head honcho said to Casey. Had he actually been looking her in the eyes she might have believed he was really welcoming her. Like most of the legal eagles before her, he probably thought her to bail at the first sign of hell. "Come on, let's introduce you to who you'll be working with."

Introductions always made Casey feel like a skinny cow on an auction block. Everyone came for purchase, but all they did was stare at her. Cragen called attention to his subordinates and with a broad motion of his hand, presented the ADA and the squad to each other.

Taking this perfect opportunity to scope out the fresh, _lean_ meat, Olivia sat up straighter in her chair and let her eyes wander from the tip to the toes of her. Now, she was no fasionista but she knew the goods when she saw them.

Auburn hair loosely tied into a chignon framed a delicate face that housed eyes so green Heineken bottles were jealous. She was pale as moon dust, but not awfully so. The stark black of her tailored skirt suit and pressed high collar did well to accent her whitewash beauty and …non shape. The lawyer wasn't rail thin, but there were no noticeable hip or bust curves breaking for their own zip codes. On the other hand, there was a lot of leg to her that Olivia could see. Even with the below the knee length bell skirt designed to shore those puppies down, there were miles of naked leg tipped off in Jimmy Choo's.

And, there was no missing the big, blatant rock on the ADA's finger that screamed money. While Olivia could give props to someone choosing to brave the DA's office, she couldn't help but snigger at the thought of this woman probably buying her way up the corporate ladder. SVU was no easy unit to get your hand in.

While Cragen continued to give discourse as to why the big guns of One Hogan Place decided to give SVU their own sole prosecutor Casey decided to take her own stock. The squad room had come to a near halt, muted light from stingy windows battling against harsh fluorescents only to settle in a despaired glow over the tops of twenty or so joined partners desks.

A sort of an awkward silence followed as Cragen wound his speech down. No one stepped forward to introduce themselves, and Casey didn't offer anymore than a curt nod of acknowledgment. She just wanted to get the fuck out of there and back to her office, away from here.

Special Victims. A whole different flavor of humanity she didn't care to taste. Casey wondered what made one victim more special than another. In her mind, heaven was a pipe dream and the whole world was going to hell no matter what you tried to do. There would never be any real peace, but maybe if you were lucky you could be happy with what life handed you. No two persons got the same dose, but as far as she was concerned pain was pain was pain. It couldn't hurt one more, it couldn't hurt the other less.

Luck had never been on Casey's side, anyway.

On her way out, Casey caught a brown eyed stare in her peripheral vision. She paused by the door to take one final sweeping glance of the room, noting one of the few female detectives still watching her. Blank faced. Emotionless.

It put her back up a little, but Casey didn't let it show. She made a pointed face back at her, then continued on her way.

Olivia would never be able to put into words why, but there was something about that ADA that brought on an instant dislike. Rather than explore the possibilities, she let it go at that. Olivia didn't like most lawyers on principal, simply because they were lawyers. She figured this one would be no different than most of the others who only stuck around for a handful of cases, and chose not to waste her time on the whys.

Olivia cracked open a case file, and got back to work. Halfway to the bottom of the first page, she found her thoughts wandering.


End file.
